Welcome to the first Wired Smart List. We set out to discover
the people who are going to make an impact on our future --by
asking today's top achievers who, emerging in their field, they'd
most like to have a leisurely lunch or dinner with. So we
approached some of the world's brightest minds -- from Melinda
Gates to Ai Weiwei -- to nominate one fresh, exciting thinker who
is influencing them, someone whose ideas or experience they feel
are transformative.

Some suggested names you may be aware of, others might be new.
Either way, they're all people you really need to know about. And
wired will be inviting all nominators and nominees to a giant
dinner party...

Richard Branson -- entrepreneur selects
Lesego Malatsi -- designer Lesego Malatsi has a business called Mzansi Designers
Emporium, based in Johannesburg. The company was mentored at the
Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in South Africa and it finds
fantastic local fashion designers who are beginning to take their
business overseas. It's doing great -- it recently showcased its
fashions at London Fashion Week. Organiser Fashion's Finest
described the collection as "hotter than hot".

Niklas Zennström -- founder, Atomico;
cofounder, Kazaa and Skype selects Markus Alexej Persson aka Notch -- creator,
Minecraft Notch saw a chance to create computer games in a
different way, and executed it brilliantly. He does what all great
technology entrepreneurs do: think globally, seeing the true
potential for an online business, while understanding his
customers. He's modest but confident in his area of expertise, and
is always engaging. Besides, he is a fellow Swede who is creating
an international success story.

Aaron Koblin -- creative director, the Data Arts Team at
Google Creative Lab selects
Sid Meier -- game designer As the creator of Civilization, Sid Meier has
deconstructed the forces behind historical events and used computer
simulation to recreate iterations of those rules and systems in an
immersive and engaging gaming experience. Without Sid I'm not sure
I would have begun to respect how fascinating our history and our
cultures really are; or how much I could really enjoy a good video
game.

Geoffrey West -- theoretical
physicict
selectsDavid Krakauer David Krakauer is a true polymath, full of ideas and
creativity. He comes out of evolutionary biology at Oxford and was
at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, for several years
before becoming a colleague of mine at Santa Fe Institute. He has
written papers with fellow biologists Martin Nowak and Mark Pagel
and was recently recruited to run the new Winsconsin Institute for
Discovery -- it's broad and trans-disciplinary in outlook, though
centred on the biosciences.

Alain de Botton
--philosopher selectsJohn
Armstrong--philosopher The writer and philosopher John Armstrong [author of In
Search of Civilisation: Remaking a Tarnished Idea] is a very bold
thinker, arguing that capitalism has gone wrong not because there
aren't enough regulations on businesses but because there isn't
enough education of consumers. In his eyes, the task is not to ban
McDonald's, but to educate our desires so that we might "freely"
consider alternatives. This is thinking at once boldly left- and
right-wing.

Jane McGonigal -- game designer
selectsVincent Horn and Rohan Gunatillake -- The Buddhist
Geeks I'm a geek. I'm also a practising Buddhist. That's why,
of everyone on the planet, I'd most like to lunch with the founder
of Buddhist Geeks, Vincent Horn, and the cofounder of the Buddhist
Geeks conference, Rohan Gunatillake. What's a Buddhist geek?
It's someone with an interest in technology and Buddhist wisdom who
wants to figure out how to use technology to reinvent a
thousands-year-old spiritual practice to be more accessible, more
relevant and easier to integrate into our lives. They're
asking big questions, such as "How can social media support
meditation practice?" "How can design thinking change the way
ancient wisdom is taught and passed on?" "Can videogames lead to
enlightenment?" I'm particularly passionate about that last
question!

John Brockman -- president the Edge
Foundation
selectsJennifer Jacquet -- postdoctoral researcher
She is intellectually fearless, deeply serious about science,
personally effervescent and always curious. Her interests are
environmental sustainability (particularly fish), the evolution and
function of guilt, honour and shame, and the role of IT in shaping
environmental action -- all of which fall under a broad interest in
the tragedy of the commons. Penguin publishes her Is Shame
Necessary? soon.

Esther Dyson -- investor and entrepreneur
selectsNathan Eagle -- CEO, txteagle
Nathan Eagle is not just smart; he applies his intelligence to the
real world, with both vision (mobile phones as capital equipment
enabling millions of people around the world to become productive),
and a business model (get them to collect data and market research
for large companies). His company, Jana (in which I've invested),
employs thousands and, ultimately, he employs millions of people in
emerging markets as market researchers.

Juan Enriquez -- life scientist
selectsEd Boyden -- optogeneticist
Ed Boyden's research at MIT founded the field of optogenetics. Now
we can observe how a brain reacts as it hears, feels, sees, smells,
remembers, loves. But perhaps more interesting, scary and weird is
that he's developed ways to promote or suppress memories and
feelings by using fibre-optic light. Eventually, people may even be
able to upload or download their memories.

Joi Ito -- director, MIT Media Lab
selectsCesar Hidalgo -- network scientist
Hidalgo is a young academic bringing economics, networks and data
science together to help understand the various complexities of
economic growth.

Comments

What sane person would read beyond that? I came via a link and now I remember why it's been years since I read anything in this magazine. Utter rubbish.

Dan

Jan 29th 2012

Please get rid of these f---ing galleries, just show the f---ing list.

nina

Jan 30th 2012

typical "lead you into a sight and then you search and search for the content while being BOMBARDED WITH ADVERTISEMENT...bullshit!

Mark Robinson

Jan 30th 2012

The lack of musicians and filmmakers on this list bothers me. Their impact and influence on culture is undeniable, yet entrepreneurs and guilt-ridden "activists" dominate the list.

Money.

Morad Moazami

Jan 30th 2012

I have to laugh when I see Richard Branson as the first person on the list. There are a lot of silicon heads on the list too.

Felix Scott

Jan 31st 2012

...and few politicians.

SJFletch

Jan 31st 2012

支持陈光诚

saori

Feb 1st 2012

Congratulations Dr. Ashwin Mahesh! great to see your work being recognized!

Praveen

Feb 1st 2012

Articles like this - and some of the comments they attract - are quite astounding. There is evidently a lot of prejudice about the name "Richard Branson" - despite the fact that this is a man who HAS changed the world already. That's nothing to do with whether you like him or not. I am torn by the commentator who said filmmakers should be included - which I seriously agree with, although "musicians" is more dubious, no matter how much you love music - as he also talks somewhat disparagingly of "guilt-ridden activists". Jesus Christ, is he talking about someone in China whose words and actions are supremely significant?!! Above all this, however, what I really can not get over is the idea that if someone asked you to pick someone who would be important enough "to change the world", and they were going to publish it, what kind of mind picks either a photographer or a fashion designer?!

Graham Lawrence

Feb 2nd 2012

In reply to Graham Lawrence

The article begins by explaining "We set out to discover the people who are going to make an impact on our future --by asking today's top achievers who, emerging in their field, they'd most like to have a leisurely lunch or dinner with." Given what was asked of them, I can't fault any of these choices. Fashion can change the world. It might not be considered a change for the better or worse, but there is no doubt that what we wear is related to how we think about ourselves, and is influenced by fashion designers. Hey, Apples success is primarily a result of engineering design, not necessarily breakthroughs in technology, and it has certainly had an effect on global culture. Perhaps it could be argued that the article should have been titled the 50 Most Interesting People instead of 50 People Who Will Change The World. But I still found all the choices fascinating and illuminating.